Join us – become a member of the Tweed Valley Tourist Consortium!

Dear Prospective Member

Thank you for your interest in joining the Tweed Valley Tourist Consortium – a vibrant marketing group comprising around 80 tourism businesses in the Tweed Valley that have come together to promote the area, encourage longer stays, and generate a higher spend from those who visit.

I’m happy to say, we have come far since our beginnings in 2003 as the Tweeddale Tourist Consortium, securing many industry awards and plaudits for the way in which we work together. We have a website – currently being updated and refreshed – that sees around 14,000 visits per month, a Tweed Valley map/leaflet that is distributed throughout the region and beyond, plus our very own mountain bike hospitality scheme. Although there is still much work to be done, we continue to aspire to make the Tweed Valley a world-class destination for a range of activities.

With the Tweed Valley now a very different place to when we first began, we recently coordinated with Bright Light Marketing, the agency that pulled together our initial marketing plan in 2005, to create a forward-thinking strategy for the decade ahead. We’ve since been busy forging closer links between current members, boosting our social media presence, plus expanding and updating this website, including developing the first in a series of themed sample visitor itineraries that highlight the sheer breadth of attractions and activities that can be enjoyed in the area.

Next up is a push to generate press visits from a sample of media, many themed along the lines of the sample trip ideas: food and drink, family breaks, Borders Railway explorer, art lovers, adventure break and luxury weekend break.

We will also be developing a special My Tweed Valley campaign that will include interviews and video content covering the local people, places and attractions that make this such a vibrant place in which to live and work. It’s about giving the area a real sense of place as we continue to reach out to new tourism markets, and encourage existing visitors to stay longer.

These are exciting times in the Tweed Valley and we’d love you to be part of what we’re doing. The Consortium is an organisation driven by the pro-activeness of individual members, with many opportunities to become further involved. There are three levels of membership, all of which provide a presence on our website and the chance to participate in marketing activities and be plugged in to all that is happening in a way that benefits your business and also highlights the wider Tweed Valley as an attractive destination for visitors:

Option one: Basic listing – a single thumbnail image and intro description, with click through to 100 words about your business (see sample), £50/year

Option two: Enhanced listing – a single thumbnail image and intro description, with click through to 250 words about your business and one large photo (see sample), £100/year

Option three: Full listing – a single thumbnail image and intro description, with click through to 400 words about your business and image 'slider’ with up to six large photos (see sample), £200/year

I do hope you will decide to join us. If you’d like to register your interest, please complete our online form, or call my colleague, Rich Rowe, on 01896 830648 for more details.